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Theory #4 - "Wobbly" As a Pejorative Slur by the Employing Class

There also remains the possibility of an unknown fourth origin for the term, such as the use of the term as a pejorative by employers. IWW members may well have been dismissed as "wobbly", i.e. drunk (a well known derogatory term for the IWW was, "I Want Whiskey", odd especially considering the fact that the IWW organized dehorn squads to shut down establishments that sold alcohol during prohibition, so that general strikes, such as that in Seattle in 1919 would not be undermined by drunken workers). The IWW more than once adopted pejorative terms hurled at them by the boss press and used them to their advantage, just as Wobbly folksingers would recycle Salvation Army and Church hymns and write pro-labor songs using the folk process. Quoting Downing again:

[W]hen Herman Suhr, during the Wheatfield Strikes, wired for all footloose Wobblies to hurry there, of course the prosecution made a mountain of mystery out of it, and the term has stuck to us ever since.

Of course, this is mentioned in the same letter where Downing offers the Chinese Restaurant theory, and it suggests that the term originated among IWW members first, was used as an insult by the boss class and boss press, and gladly accepted by the Wobblies in any case. Again, the evidence still favors the Chinese Restaurant theory, even though there is no independent evidence for it whatsoever.

One anecdote from a longtime member, Arthur J. Miller, also suggests a similar origin:

Another one I remember hearing from an old timer long ago. It went something like this: Some of the bosses used to say that IWW stood for "I Want Whiskey" and a boss was asked how he could tell when he saw an IWW and he said "they are the ones that wobble."

However, there is no independent proof of this account and may simply be a yarn created out of wholecloth. Or, for that matter, the account may be true, but there is no way to know if this account predates Mortimer Downing's story or not.